Rodell Records

I don't know when they started, but around the mid to late 90s, Rodell Records was in every magazine with an ad for a "Nationwide Talent Search."

A search for them doesn't reveal much, but as you'll see from this page, there was a time when they were everywhere and people were talking about them all over the place.  It's my opinion that this activity ultimately led to their demise. At least I think it did...  Is this company still around?  New name, maybe?

During this time, everybody you'd run into had a story about this company.  It was a very similar situation to what you hear now about the "music publishing" companies that send letters to everybody who sends their songs for copyright registration.  So I thought I'd put something up as a place for people to tell their stories about this company.

Here's mine...

I'd heard the stories and was curious about the company.  Was there anything they'd turn down?  In 1996, I sent them a copy of the very worst demo I'd ever received.  Off key, poor musicianship, no songwriting skills, the works...

Two weeks later I had a letter from Rodell saying they had received my demo, but were taking 3-4 weeks to review things, due to the "high volume" or material they were receiving.

And about three weeks after that, I got another letter saying that my song had been reviewed and based on a "point system" of originality, content, technical ability, and overall presentation, they felt that the song I had sent in had "commercial potential."

This was from something on a cheap cassette tape, a hand-written bio, and the worst package I could possibly put together...

The letter went on to say they were working on a major project and how the project's success was contingent on the "personalities" involved having a good working relationship.  It talked about how this opportunity could move my career forward and how I needed to telephone them to complete a "confidential personality profile" to make sure we could get along. 

Sound familiar?  If you ever dealt with this company. post your stories below...

Comments

[Phil Johnson]

I don't think I ever dealt with Rodell, though they were the talk of the town for awhile. I saw through it pretty quickly having mistakently worked with another company a few year's before.

Can't remember their name, but my band actually flew to LA to meet with them. Nice enough guys, but I totally expected them to say no. When they said yes, I told my guys "Hang on... I wouldn't even sign us yet." :)

But I saw a lot of people get taken by Rodell. I'm quite sure they still exist in some form. Or they're in jail.

[Douglas R. Docker]

I certainly remember RR, I was "selected" in 1993. I still have all the letters, with the exact same wording you mention. They felt my song had commerical potential. It was a hugely complicated progressive rock song, that was anything but commercial. They wanted to "trim it down" to single size... Funny thing is I already had a record deal with a successful band at the time, so I had to turn them down. He was pissed!

[Marc]

I am absolutely familiar with these guys and dealt with them too... the story is very similar to the others. Back in 1992, I was in a pretty horrible metal act just doing basement tapes. The one particular "single" we sent to them was a mess of a song (that was actually pretty good but buried under tons of bad production and reverb).

Sure enough, we got the green light from Rodell saying that we were hit-worthy and they wanted to put our song onto their latest compilation CD for an, "aggressive marketing campaign" to the major labels. They were going to hand-carry each CD to special contacts they had at all of the majors.

We were, although young and naieve, very hands-on at the time. I remember racking up major long-distance minutes talking to the "CEO" Kevin Rodell. He sounded like he was more annoyed than anything, to have to sit and talk with a little punk in a metal band. But I hammered him with all sorts of questions about the label, including its history and their goals. I remember he told me his parents started the label as a country and bluegrass label, and they only had one signed act (which I can't remember now). Imagine how frustrated this guy must have been, trying to get my commitment and money out of me and I'm on the phone from PA asking twenty questions.

In the end, he did smooth-talk us out of our cash. I evetually trusted him enough to coax my band into doing it. I can't remember the exact amount, but they wanted us to rush a master tape to them, overnight it so it could make it onto their scheduled "Music Menagerie" CD. There was no time to think (a great scam tactic), we just had to get it out and in the mail, along with a $500 check, so they could do some "mastering" on the recording.

They said they wanted to take our original recording and "sweeten and enhance" it a bit for the demo CD, and that was what the fee would cover.

I called and bothered the heck out of Mr. Rodell over the following weeks. I think it took them quite a long time to make the compilation. When it came out, it was utterly shocking and bizarre. The selection of artists on the CD, along with their pictures, made it pretty clear to us something was not right. Most of the bands really sucked, and looked just as bad. There was one particular guy at the end of the CD who HAD to be an absolute practical joke. I think he was literally whispering into the microphone on the recording, making noises and sounds like an animal. His picture was of a cross-eyed nerd with curly hair and the song title was "I'll still go further".

And the sweetened and enhanced version of our song that appeared on the CD? Not a note different than the one we sent them. It was the same exact recording.

The worst part about it was, that after the CD had been done, Rodell came back around for another swing. This time they claimed that all of the artists on the CD had been extended a special offer to be in a directory guide that would be published and distributed to insiders in the recording industry. Also, for an additional fee, they would hook us up with a PR firm in the area to come up with a marketing plan for distributing the 100 copies of this horrible project. Additional cost: $240 (if I remember correctly), not including the ongoing fees to consult with the PR firm.

Bottom line, this "Record Company" was a major sham that fleeced desperate musicians who would do almost anything to make it. They preyed upon our commitment to success and played psychological games with some very young and vulnerable people.

Well, you live and learn. That was one of many horrible plots to extract a little money from the pockets of the overcrowded music industry. It worked, apparently.

When you think about the numbers, each CD had about 20 artists on it x $500 = $10,000 per CD. Given that it probably cost about $3000 to print a couple thousand CDs back then, you're looking at a cool $7K per Project that Rodell probably walked away with.

Wherever they are, I hope those slimebags are as equally desparate and destitute now, as they were dishonest back then. Their game caught up with them and their name will hopefully carry its awful reputation to the grave with them. That is, if that was a real name after all.

[Jay Felger]

Dealt with these vermin back in 93 or 94. I was in Ohio then with a pretty lousy metal act (we thought we were great at the time). Got the letter from Rodell that such and such song had "commercial potential". hahahaha Called them to discuss and was basically talking with a salesman (to sell me on them not to sell my product). When he didn't feel he was breaking through to me, he tranfers me to Kevin (the prez) who tries to browbeat me down and calls me a naive midwesterner. hahahaha I secretly recorded the calls to allow my bandmates to hear the conversations. I watched my bandmates hang their heads in disgust when they heard the first salesman sentence blast forth from this guy's mouth. LOL We were naive actually but not naive enough for these clowns. We declined to send them any money and after moving to LA a few months later, heard alot of "industry folks" talking about Rodell and laughing. A total scam for sure.

[dave lobie]

fucking rip offs-i was on "diamonds in the rough".....better known as "give me your money sucker"!! oh well live and learn.........

[BrianVimX]

I had the same exact story happen to me. The President of the company would call my house begging me to be on some stupid comp cd. I said no, and to stop calling me.

[joe Piciacchio]

Dave,
We were on 'Diamonds in the rough' as well, we were the band "Chaser".............he got us! Joe P

[Richard Livengood]

Oh , yeah, There is a guy out there now on Craigslist called JMD music or something. JMD.

It's the SAME thing. Fortuntely, for me, by the time I heard of Rodell i had been around the block a few times.

But, what made me think of them recently was this JMD company.

I even sent him and e-mail asking him if he had heard of RODELL.

HAHA. What a freegin RIP OFFF.. man but, musicians and actors and the like are a very SUSCEPTIBLE bunch. He's just doing what WE want to HEAR about somebody doing for us.

Just B.S.`

[richard livengood]

Here is their most current info:

1851 East 1st Street 9th Floor
Santa Ana, CA 92705
(714) 531-5786